Moulded chairs

ABSTRACT

A chair moulded in one piece from a suitable plastics material stacks vertically, and has a seating area nearly as great as the plan area of the seat, by waisting the back support at its junction with the seat and rear legs, providing the rear legs with an internally directed channel over the greater part of their length which merges at the tops of the legs into the said waisted portion, and making the side edges of the legs in the side planes of the chair substantially vertical.

United States Patent 1 Sebel et a1.

[451 Apr. 1, 1975 MOULDED CHAIRS [75]; Inventors: Harry Sebel,Bankstown; Dillon Charles Furey, North Sydney, both of New South Wales,Australia [73] Assignee: Sebel Limited, Bankstown, New

South Wales, Australia [22] Filed: Apr. 27, 1973 [21] App]. No.: 355,210

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 28, 1972 Australia 633/72[52] US. Cl. 297/239 [51] Int. Cl. A47c 3/00 [58] Field of Search297/239, DIG. 2, 216, 452, 297/445, 458

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,541,835 2/1951 Saarinen297/D1G. 2 2,936,826 5/1960 Reineman 297/D1G. 2

3,165,355 l/l965 Hitchcock et a1. 297/216 3,586,371 6/1971 Baetzner297/239 3,637,256 l/1972 297/DIG. 2 3,784,254 l/l974 Longato 297/DIG. 2

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 267,796 l/l969 Austria 297/DIG. 2

Primary Examiner-Paul R. Gilliam Assistant Examiner-Doris L. TroutmanAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Robert E. Burns; Emmanuel .l. Lobato; Bruce L.Adams [57] ABSTRACT A chair moulded in one piece from a suitableplastics material stacks vertically,. and has a seating area nearly asgreat as the plan area of the seat, by waisting the back support at itsjunction with the seat and rear legs, providing the rear legs with aninternally directed channel over the greater part of their length whichmerges at the tops of the legs into the said waisted portion, and makingthe side edges of the legs in the side planes of the chair substantiallyvertical.

4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTED APR 1 I975 SHKET 1 BF 3IT'LJEHTEDAFR m SHEET 2 U? 3 In: MOULDED CHAIRS This invention relatesto mou'lded chairs, and more particularly to a substantiallyvertical-stackingchair moulded in one piece from plastics-materials.

While chairs are known which stack almost vertically and are moulded inonepiece' from plastics material, they do not give the maximumdesirableseating area for their overall dimensions in plan. Accordinglyfor a chair of given maximum dimensions in plan, and it is usuallydesirable not 'to exceed a maximum width of nineteen inches for a chairused in public places'such as auditoriums, comfort is reduced, chairsalso present problems when arranged in rows due to the substantial gapbetween the chairs at the seat level. This is due to the fact that thelegs of conventional, moulded chairs are splayed outwardly. For example,it is a not uncommon requirement for public auditoriums that when chairsare arranged in rows, the chairs must be connected together in groupsof, say, five. The purpose of thisis to reduce the likelihood of a chairbeing knocked over inpanic situations, such 'as in the case of fire, andblocking a row. The substantial gap at seat level introducesdifficulties in connecting the' chairs together in groups as part of therows. i

The present-invention provides chairswhich stack substantiallyvertically, which are moulded in one piece from a plastics material, andin which the seating area is nearly as great as the plan area of thechair. The sides of adjacent chairs at seat level are close togetherwhen put in rows, giving a more convenient row, and making it easier toconnect chairs together.

The objects of the present invention are achieved by making the chairlegs in at least the planes of the chair sides substantially vertical,providing waist-like junctions of the backrest with the seat and rearlegs, and into shaping of the rear legs in to merge the contractedwaist-like junctions. By having the legs substantially vertical asdescribed the seating area is maximized, while the waist-like shaping ofthe backrest and rear legs still permits nearly vertical stacking.

Therefore according to this invention a substantially vertical stackingchair moulded in one piece from plastics material and having a backsupport, a seat, rear legs and front legs, is characterized in that theside edges of the legs in the side planes of the chair are substantiallyvertical, the back support atits junction with the seat and the rearlegs is contracted in waist-form, and the rear legs have internallydirected channels over at least the greater part of their length whichmerges at the tops of the legs into the contracted portions.

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a chair according to this invention,

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation of the chair,

FIG. 3 is a side elevation,

FIG. 4 is a front elevation,

FIG. 5 is a bottom plan,

FIG. 6 is a section, to an enlarged scale, in the line 66 of FIG. 3,

FIG. 7 is a side elevation showing two chairs according to FIGS. 1 to 6with one chair stacked on another, and

FIG. 8 is a top plan showing two chairs according to FIGS. 1 to 6 placedside by side.

'the back support of the new chair nerges with the seat and rear legs,it' is waist-shaped at 9, .10, as is best seen in'FIGS; 4 'and'8.Theflanges' 7 continue downward past the seat as rear flanges of therear legs 3, 4. The sides of the seat are turned down as skirts 11 withreinforcing beads 12 which beads also extend down the insides of thefront and rear legs. The skirts ll merge into the flanges 7 byway of thewaist portions 9, 10 so as to form channels l3-which extends down therear legs at 14 with a slightly diminishing, channel-like crosssectionuntil near the bottoms of the rear legs where the channels cease at 15and the bottommost portion of th leg is moulded as a solid piece 16.

The front legs 5, 6 are also moulded with channels 17 whosecross-section diminishes slightly from top to bottom, the channelceasing near the bottom of the legs which finish as a solid piece 18.The front of the seat also has a downwardly directed skirt 19 whichmerges with the front flanges '20 of the front legs. The perimeter ofthe skirt l9 and flanges 20 is also provided with a thickenedstrengthening beading 21.

The side skirts 11 also merge with the side flanges 22, 23 of the frontand rear legs respectively these flanges narrow toward the bottom andnearly disappear at the bottom.

A small outward projection 24 extends across each leg channel near thetop of the leg, and these projections form stops on which internalprojections or ribs 25 of each leg rest when one chair is stacked onanother.

An essential feature of the invention is that the edges of the legs, inthe planes of the two sides, are substantially vertical. This can beseen in FIGS. 2 and'4 where the beadings 12 of the rear legs 3,4 as wellas those of front legs 5,6 lie in a vertical plane. As a consequence twochairs can be placed side by side as shown in FIG. 8 with the verticaland horizontal beadings 12 in contact, or nearly so. The adjacent edges26 of the seats are then about one half inch apart at their closestpoints. The necessary moulding draft angle in the legs to permitwithdrawal of a chair from a mould is provided in the front and rearplanes of the legs. This construction enables the seat to occupy most ofthe space of the chairs and tends to maximize the seat area for a givenoverall width of chair. Despite the vertical nature of the legs in theside planes it is still possible to stack the chairs nearly verticallyas in FIG. 7. The stacking height is determined by projection 24 andcooperating rib 25 by providing a positive stacking height by thesemeans jamming of chairs when stacked is virtually eliminated.

Strengthening ribs are shown at 27, FIG. 5.

A central cavity can be provided in each solid foot 16 extendingupwardly from the bottom of the foot. Plastic glides or inserts can beprovided each of which has an upwardly directed part which fits into thecavities, and an inverted mushroom base. The inserts may be a force fitinto the cavities, or be screwed or otherwise secured in place. For ageneral purpose chair the bases of the inserts will be about 2 /2centimetres thick, and the leading edge of the chair will then be about44 cms. from the floor. However, either the front or rear inserts can bereplaced by inserts having bases of greater height or thickness, say 5cm., to give a more relaxed or more vertical seating posturerespectively.

The chair can readily be adapted for people shorter than normal, forexample those wishing to have a leading edge of 42 cms. from the floor,by fitment of inserts which are only /2 cm thick. Postural adjustmentcan be provided by use of the 2% cm. inserts in either front or rearlegs.

When two or more chairs are to be joined together when placed side byside (as in FIG. 8), which is commonly known as rowing, the side skirts11 can be used with whatever joining means are used. Outwardlyprojecting stubs can be moulded into the skirts which abut against eachother when the chairs are rowed. One possible joining means are boltspassing through the stubs.

The front legs of the chair are the same width as the rear legs it isimpossible to keep chairs tidy in an auditorium where the back legs arespaced apart more widely than the front legs.

We claim:

1. A chair stackable and rowable with an alike chair, comprising asingle body moulded from plastic material and defining a back support, aseat, rear legs and front legs; the rear and front legs having sideedges which de- 4. fine lower parts of side'planes of the chair and saidedges and planes being substantially vertical to facilitate rowing ofthe chair with an alike chair; each year and front leg defining achannel which, in cross-section, is convex toward the inside of thechair, over an upper and at least a greater part of its length, forreceiving a corresponding channel-like rear leg of an alike chairstacked thereon; the back support having contracted waist portionsadjacent the seat and the rear legs, and the channel defined by the rearlegs having top end portions merging into respective, contracted waistportions to facilitate stacking of the chair.

2. A chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein said channelshapedcross-sections defined by the legs extend, and have diminishingcrosssections, from the top of each leg downwards to adjacent a lowerend of the leg; a portion of the leg adjacent the lower end being asolid piece of said plastic material.

3. A chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein an outward projection extendsacross the channel of each leg adjacent the top of the leg, and each leghas internal substantially vertical rib means, near its top, for restingthe lower ends of the rib means of one chair on the outward projectionsof a lower chair when the chairs are stacked.

4. A chair as claimed in claim 1 in which the seat hasdownwardlyextending front and rear skirts and the legs have flanges merging withsaid skirts.

1. A chair stackable and rowable with an alike chair, comprising asingle body moulded from plastic material and defining a back support, aseat, rear legs and front legs; the rear and front legs having sideedges which define lower parts of side planes of the chair and saidedges and planes being substantially vertical to facilitate rowing ofthe chair with an alike chair; each year and front leg defining achannel which, in cross-section, is convex toward the inside of thechair, over an upper and at least a greater part of its length, forreceiving a corresponding channel-like rear leg of an alike chairstacked thereon; the back support having contracted waist portionsadjacent the seat and the rear legs, and the channel defined by the rearlegs having top end portions merging into respective, contracted waistportions to facilitate stacking of the chair.
 2. A chair as claimed inclaim 1 wherein said channelshaped cross-sections defined by the legsextend, and have diminishing cross-sections, from the top of each legdownwards to adjacent a lower end of the leg; a portion of the legadjacent the lower end being a solid piece of said plastic material. 3.A chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein an outward projection extendsacross the channel of each leg adjacent the top of the leg, and each leghas internal substantially vertical rib means, near its top, for restingthe lower ends of the rib means of one chair on the outward projectionsof a lower chair when the chairs are stacked.
 4. A chair as claimed inclaim 1 in which the seat has downwardly extending front and rear skirtsand the legs have flanges merging with said skirts.